New York Times Company to sell share in Boston Red Sox

Thursday 29 January 2009 06.08 EST
First published on Thursday 29 January 2009 06.08 EST

The New York Times Company is looking to sell its share of the Boston Red Sox baseball team after revealing late yesterday that its income for the last three months of 2008 fell by nearly 48% year on year.

Net income for the company for the period was $27.6m (£19.4m), down from $53m during the same period in 2007, as advertisers cut back their investments.

Janet L Robinson, the president and chief executive for the NYT's parent company, warned that the rate of decline in print advertising revenue in January had accelerated from December and that trading conditions remained difficult.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, group advertising revenue fell 17.6% year on year. Ad revenue generated by its news media business, which includes the flagship New York Times, the Boston Globe and other local papers throughout the US, fell 18.4% compared to the same period in 2007.

The company said this was due to weakness in print advertising, its main source of income, across all of its major properties. Revenue from its digital businesses were also down year on year, the firm said.

However, circulation revenue was up 3.7% after prices increases were introduced for the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

"After growing almost 15% in the first nine months of last year, digital advertising decreased 3.5% in the fourth quarter as online marketers cut back on display ads, in response to worsening business conditions."

As a remedy to its financial problems, the publisher also announced today that it had retained Goldman Sachs to explore the possible sale of its 17.8% share in New England Sports Ventures, owner of the Boston Red Sox, which it bought in February 2002.

Last week it announced that the company was taking a $250m (£171m) investment from the Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim Helú to offset crippling debt. The publisher said it would use the money to help refinance its existing debt, although it will continue to look for other finance options.

Robinson said the publisher was responding to the present realities in its markets by looking to reduce costs and improve the financial position by completing the Slim transaction.

In December, the company said it would not replace one of two $400m credit facilities, due to expire in May. It is exploring options to sell its New York headquarters and lease it back as a way of bringing money into the company, along with the proposed sale of the Red Sox.

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